Volunteers’ Week

The National Cartoon Gallery’s backbone – apart from its cartoon collection – is its volunteers.

A dedicated band of people give up their time and bring their skills to the Gallery, allowing it to be open 363 days of the year (closed only on Christmas Day & Good Friday).

The many activities at the Bunker – cartoon exhibitions, venue hire, morning and afternoon teas, film nights, cartooning workshops – are made possible by the efforts of the volunteers. They are the foreground of the Gallery: meeting & greeting visitors, providing additional information on the current exhibition, answering questions about the Bunker’s history, as well as assisting visitors with their purchases: artists’ sales, cartoon reprints, and Gallery shop merchandise.

Volunteers are also vital in the Gallery’s background: selecting works to be displayed, matting, framing, labelling and hanging exhibitions, and cataloguing and archiving the collection whether through the Rotary Cartoon Awards or private donations.

The annual Rotary Cartoon Awards are the vehicle that drives the growth of the Gallery’s collection. All the entries received need to be recorded, digitised, referenced, and catalogued. These tasks are all undertaken by the volunteers. It’s a mammoth effort, not only for the sheer numbers of entries needing processing, but it needs to run to a strict timetable.

The National Cartoon Gallery could not operate without its volunteers. Without exception, they are valued and appreciated for their dedication, willingness, and skills.